


Aftermath of a Nightmare

by uofmdragon



Series: Ultimate Spider-man Shorts [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, Outsider's Perspective, friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-20
Updated: 2013-02-20
Packaged: 2017-11-29 21:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/691852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uofmdragon/pseuds/uofmdragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Principal Coulson is acting strangely and Ava seems to be the only one that realizes it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath of a Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Coda for Season 1, Episode 13, _Strange Days_. Beta'd by pyroblaze18 (kultiras)

Ava made her way toward the viewing station where Agent Coulson would tell them what they had done well and done wrong during their training session. The others trudged along with her, talking about the homework load they had to work on after training. She wasn't worried about hers, she'd get it done. 

They entered the room but instead of being greeted by Coulson, they found him frowning at his phone. This was the twenty-third time she'd caught him doing that since yesterday when she first noticed he was looking at his phone a lot. Coulson had never checked his cell phone in front of them before, something had to be bothering him.

"Hey can we get this going? I gotta get home," Peter said, having noticed that Coulson was taking longer than usual, but he not caring about why that was.. Ava did, but then she'd been with SHIELD the longest and it had been Agent Coulson who had recruited her, shown her around the helicarrier, and introduced her to other agents. Luke and Danny had come next at about the same time, followed closely by Sam, and then finally Peter, just as they were beginning to find their balance among the four of them.

Coulson did their debriefing and while the others didn't notice that it wasn't as detailed as usual—still detailed, because even a distracted Coulson was scarily efficient—it just wasn't up to his usual standards. Ava waited for the others to clear out, making some excuse about wanting to help clean up. She ignored Sam's jibe about being a 'teacher's pet' and did it anyway.

"Agent Coulson," she asked, waiting for the agent to turn his attention to her. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything is fine, Ms. Ayala," Coulson said. He paused, before asking, "Why do you ask?"

"You just seem off?" Ava said, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

"Perhaps I'm coming down with something," Coulson suggested.

"No, because then you wouldn't be checking your phone all the time," Ava said, and then winced, realizing it was rookie mistake. She spilled her primary evidence too early.

"I am waiting for a call," Coulson admitted.

"From who?" Ava couldn't help but ask.

"It's personal," Coulson answered. It was an honest answer, but one that meant that he wouldn't give any further information.

Ava nodded, and they slipped into into an easy silence. She left him be and considered where to go next. She was still worried about Coulson. She could go talk to the boys, but Danny would give some cryptic advice and Sam would scoff at her, so instead of turning right and heading to the commons area where they would be working on their homework, she turned left and headed deeper into the helicarrier. It didn't take her long to get to the labs and to the lab of Agent Morse. She peered inside and smiled when she was saw Agent Morse tapping away on her keyboard. Ava knocked gently on the glass, waiting for the other Agent to wave her in.

"Hey Ava," Bobbi greeted her. "I haven't seen you around these parts in a while."

"Been busy with the team," Ava admitted, going to take a seat on one of the stools. Agent Morse was one of the first agents she'd met while working for SHIELD. She was both a spy and a biologist, and SHIELD liked to send her in to investigate AIM and Hydra.

"How's that working out?" Bobbi asked, looking back at the computer.

"It's good, better than it was before," Ava said.

"Mm, that's good," Bobbi commented. Her attention was focused on the screen, but Ava knew that Bobbi was listening to her.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ava asked.

"Of course," Bobbi said. "You know you can come to me for anything."

"I know," Ava said, "You're friends with Agent Coulson, right?"

"Yes," Bobbi said. "Why?"

"He's been acting...distracted?" Ava said. "Like his attention is not all here, and looking at his phone all the time."

"Did you ask Agent Coulson about this?"

"I did," Ava said. "He said it was personal."

"But you're still worried," Bobbi finished for her and smiled lightly.

"Yeah," Ava agreed. "He recruited me and he kind of watched out for me those first couple of months."

"So you're worried about him and want some reassurance?" Bobbi asked.

"Kind of," Ava agreed with a sigh. "It's stupid."

"You want to be a SHIELD agent, and you're worried that your supervising agent is acting strangely," Bobbi summarized. "It is not stupid, it's a valid reaction."

"You think?"

"I do," Bobbi said, turning to look at her. "So let's think this through. When did you notice this?"

"Yesterday, during Spider-man and Iron Fist’s debriefing," Ava admitted.

"Was he acting like this the day before?" Bobbi asked.

Ava thought back to two days ago at training and that day at school. She shook her head, "No."

"So what was the debriefing of?" Bobbi asked. "Assuming I'm allowed to know."

"Your clearance is higher than mine, but it was the Nightmare Incident," Ava said, before adding, "I think the majority of SHIELD was being debriefed.” 

"So it was during the debrief of the Incident where we all dreamt our worst fears?" Bobbi asked.

Ava paused, considering it, "You think he had a nightmare of something and it’s distracting him. But he said it’s personal?"

Bobbi smiled softly, "You came to me, because I'm your friend, but I'm also Coulson's friend and I'm closer to him."

"Yeah," Ava agreed.

"So I know his partner works for SHIELD and is currently on an op," Bobbi explained.

"So you think once he knows his partner is safe, he'll be fine?" Ava asked.

"Yes," Bobbi said with a nod.

Ava considered, before agreeing, "I guess it makes sense. I should probably give it a couple days; if he goes back to normal then that was what it probably was and if he doesn't, then I can come talk to you again."

"Always," Bobbi promised "You want to hang out here and do your homework?"

"If I'm not going to be interrupting?"

"You won't be," Bobbi said, turning back to her computer. "I might actually need a fresh set of eyes on this."

Ava smiled and pulled out her books. She knew Bobbi didn't really need her help, but she liked to share and encourage Ava's interest in science.

*

Ava lingered again after the next day's training session. This time when Sam called her a teacher's pet, she shot back at him, "You said that yesterday, learn a new insult." She wasn't planning on staying too long, because Coulson was back to his old self and noticed right away that she was staying behind.

"Ms. Ayala?" he questioned.

"I wanted to tell you..." Ava hesitated, before going on further, "That I'm glad your partner is okay."

"My partner?" Coulson asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Agent Morse said you had one that worked for SHIELD, that's why you might have been so distracted. You had a nightmare about them," Ava explained.

Agent Coulson considered, before smiling, "I am too."

"She's back then?" Ava asked.

"No," Coulson said, "We talked on the phone, and it was enough until the Op is over."

"Good, I hope the Op is successful and they come soon then," Ava said with a slight nod, before slipping out.

*

Coulson entered his apartment, and smiled at the sleeping man sprawled out on his couch, still in his battle gear. Coulson smiled, went over to take a seat on the coffee table and reached out to gently slide a hand through Clint's hair. 

It took a moment before Clint stirred and greeted him with a rough voice, "Hey..."

"Hey," Phil said, "What are you doing here?" The other man didn't normally come back here after ops; he typically went out with the team.

"Here for you, idiot," Clint said, fondly."Want to make sure you don't have any more nightmares."

"You think you can keep them away?"

"I know I can," Clint said, smugly. "Just like I know you can keep mine away."

Phil blinked at that and smiled, "Going to have a hard time doing that on the couch."

"Bed?"

"Definitely," Phil agreed, getting to his feet. He waited as Clint forced himself to sit up. The other man tugged his boots off and stood. Phil headed to their bedroom, and started undoing the fastenings of his clothes, so that he could strip them off once he was in the room. He was vaguely aware of Clint stripping down and letting his gear fall on the floor. Phil would be mad later, but right now all he wanted to do was curl up with Clint.


End file.
